The Chicago Bears announced Saturday that they have signed free agent inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman to a 3-year contract. Freeman comes to the Bears after being very productive the last four years with the Indianapolis Colts.
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Freeman is a versatile defender who routinely tallies 100+ tackles per season and is also a solid pass defender. He has a good nose for the ball and the ability to make plays on defense. He is a little older than a typical Ryan Pace signing, but he has a lot less miles on his legs than your standard 30-year old NFL player. Freeman spent his first year post-college on the Colts practice squad and then spent the next two years in the CFL before spending the last four back with the Colts. Those first three seasons were far less grueling than what an NFL player has to endure.
The signing is a fantastic move by Pace who took a giant step this offseason towards creating one of the league’s elite linebacking corps. The signings of Freeman and Danny Trevathan has taken inside linebacker as probably the team’s biggest weakness in 2015 to what will undoubtedly be one of the team’s biggest strengths in 2016.
The Bears appear to be set to enter 2016 with Freeman and Trevathan on the inside with Pernell McPhee and Lamarr Houston on the outside. The Bears will probably retain Willie Young, Christian Jones and Jonathan Anderson around in substitution packages.
It’s been a focus the last 15 months to turn the Bears defensive unit, which was embarrassingly in the bottom three of the league in 2014, into a strength. With the moves thus far and more to come, the Bears defensive unit, led by Vic Fangio, appears set to make a jump into a top ten unit in 2016.
Pace still has money to spend. His next major focus is clearly to lock down Akiem Hicks, the defensive lineman from the New England Patriots before he turns his attention on locking down Zach Miller and probably some help in the secondary. Pace has had a solid first four days in free agency and hopefully this weekend he will finish strong and put the Bears in a place to potentially compete for a playoff berth this upcoming season.